Episode 8. And if you're going, "Hey, isn't Dakota meant to be a contestant now?", yeah. But not this time around! Thanks for reviewing, lordgemini, OmniIBIBUltraInstinctGodzilla and AnonBrowser.
By the end of the rest day, Dakota had colour back in her cheeks and told me straight out that she was feeling fine. However, I peered at her suspiciously. Was it just me, or had she grown a couple of inches?
"What?" Dakota said. "What's wrong?"
"Um, nothing." I said quickly. "I just thought there was something a little different about you. Maybe I was imagining it."
However, by the next day, I couldn't ignore it. Chef had served the contestants a dish that knocked them all out and it was my job to set them up on a raft in the middle of the lake with an alarm clock to wake them around eleven, when the challenge would start. But I was up earlier and had to go for a run alone. I saw Dakota after that. Not only did she seem to have grown taller again, but I could see some green hair at her roots. Far more than what should have grown overnight.
"I know, awful, isn't it?" Dakota said when she saw me staring. "Looks like my modelling ambitions are over. It's a nightmare!"
"It's not so bad." I said carefully. "If your hair grows that colour, I think you should grow it out a little and then have it in a pixie cut with the ends still blonde. It would be a totally original and still cool look. Green hair can be cute."
Dakota looked slightly placated, but then she added "Not to mention that now I can't see all of myself in a mirror! I don't know what happened – I could see myself fine last time I looked!"
It suddenly hit me what had happened. "Um, Dakota?" I said, forcing myself to look her in the eye. "I think I know what's happened." She just watched me instead of answering, so I rushed on "I think this might have been a delayed reaction to the toxic waste in the mine. It's made you grow taller and turned your hair green. So what I'm going to do is send you to the mainland to get checked out to make sure you know what's going to happen and if anything else is. If you're still feeling all right, you can go home, or you can come back here for the rest of the season, but you're officially relieved of intern duties either way. I've liked having you around and you'll get a little screen time. If you want, I'll find something cute for you to wear if you want to cover the green."
Dakota wore several different expressions as I spoke. Anger, hate, relief, puzzlement and lastly, gratitude. Chris certainly wouldn't have let her get checked out at all, least of all away from the island. She didn't actually say anything to me as I called another intern to grab the ex-Boat of Losers and take Dakota to a clinic, but I could tell she was too preoccupied with her own problems (if you're wondering, she came back that evening with the news that the tests had revealed her natural hair was still going to grow green and possibly more rapidly than usual, but she wasn't going to get any taller, and it was possible some of her flesh might separate from the rest, forming some little spikes, but that was all).
Meanwhile, it was time for me to head up to the raft area and see what the teams were up to. By this point, everyone was awake, and both Zoey and Lightning were soaked. Someone had given them a dunking.
"Morning, sleeping beauties!" I joked. "Sorry about not warning you first, but the producers forced my hand. I see a couple of you have taken a dip already." I couldn't help smirking. "Anyway, before we start the challenge, I have something important to say. If anyone's still looking for the invincibility statue of Chrissy, give up now. Someone else has found it, and I haven't seen who it was myself." (That was true, I didn't know who had it). "On with the challenge. The first thing you all need to do is get to shore alive, with any means you have. We'll talk second part of the challenge once you're there. And trust me – you don't want to be last. It's a major handicap to your team."
I kept my promise. Mostly, people just jumped into water or rowed, using the stick with their team icon as a paddle. A few of the mutants did go for them, but that actually was good for the Maggots. Cameron ordered his team to get to the back of the raft and turned to the giant squid, saying "Hey, jelly brain! I bet you couldn't smash me if you tried!" It did try, and Cameron jumped back just in time. And because of physics, the whole team was catapulted to shore, screaming.
"Great work, guys!" I congratulated them. "Especially you, bubble boy – that was a brave moment for you. I'll wait until the other two arrive before we talk part two, but for now, here's your reward." I tossed them a map and a compass.
A few seconds later, Jo and Lightning arrived, arguing. "I told you to kick harder!"
"And I told you you're not the boss of me!"
"Hey, Bickersons, if you want any chance of staying in the game without going head-to-head, you two might want to listen up." I told them. "So, we're playing treasure hunting this time. And I thought, that is the producers thought that a good treasure would be a classic competitor and one of our old friends who left in the first half of the season. They've got oxygen, don't worry. But I didn't choose the competitor, so please don't yell at me for giving her a panic attack."
Gwen had known we were asking her back, but not that she was going to be in a wooden chest with Sam, who the producers chose to bring back, probably so he could have some more sweet moments with Dakota. It's not like they knew she wouldn't be here, and I didn't know if she'd be back on time.
As for Gwen…well, I didn't get to talk to her properly, because she was given knockout gas on the way here, as was Sam, so both of them were just waking up now.
Jo and Lightning both had to wear belts that attached to their wrists like handcuffs, and Lightning got a metal detector. That was the penalty.
I didn't go with any of the people to the clearing the chest was buried in or anything, but I saw the whole thing on tape. And halfway through, I got a call from inside it. "Hey, what's up?" I answered the call.
"Why are you doing this to me, Toni?" I heard Gwen's voice. "I thought we were friends."
"The producers did it to you." I told her. "I asked them to make Courtney do it, but they said I had to choose someone who it was more of an ordeal for. I thought about Alejandro, but Chrissy told me where he is and it's confined to an even smaller space."
"What about this guy you stuck with me?" Gwen went on crossly.
"Producers said I had to do that too," I sighed. "He got voted out a few episodes ago and he has a crush on one of the interns."
Sam obviously heard that because I heard a scuffle and then he said "So Dakota's still here? How is she?"
"She's on the mainland right now," I said, "But if she's back before the campfire ceremony you guys can hang out. Be nice, though – she demoed a challenge a while back and it's made her look slightly different."
Either way, Jo and Lightning won. That metal detector helped them find two keys, one to free their cuffs, and one to the chest. The Maggots had made it to the clearing first, but Scott insisted he heard them in one place, way on the other side of the clearing. Jo heard Gwen's voice from not too far underground and got her and Sam out pretty quickly.
For Gwen's trouble, I took her back to my trailer and gave her a soda and even a sneak peek at confessionals. While we were watching, I found out that Cameron's observations was that Mike, if not himself at some time, was triggered to turn back whenever Zoey was threatened. That was interesting, and definitely something I needed to know.
While Gwen was hanging out and watching any footage she liked, I ran to Zoey. "I just remembered!" I said breathlessly. "Can you please do me a major favour? It's for Dakota."
Zoey looked taken aback, but she said "Um, what is it?"
"Do you have any accessories that cover the whole head?" I asked. "Like a hat, but something stylish?"
Zoey sort of just shrugged. "Well, I have this pink bandanna I don't really wear much because it clashes with my hair. I brought it along hoping to pass it on to someone."
I gave Zoey a hug impulsively. "Thank you thank you thank you – Dakota would have killed me without something like that. If I can do you any non-gameplay-related favours, just let me know!"
Zoey looked sort of shy there, but all she said was "I'll go and get it." The bandanna was kind of cute, if weird, but it was the same shade as Dakota's top, or at least close, so it worked.
Dakota arrived back in the afternoon, and I gave her the bandanna. "Don't thank me, thank Zoey," I advised. "It's hers, but she says she doesn't wear it anymore because it clashes with her hair."
Dakota shrugged. "It's not what I'd usually wear in public, but at least it matches my outfit. And covers up my roots."
That was only before I told her Sam was on the island and wanted to see her. I didn't watch the footage of them, but they both came to the campfire ceremony with the Maggots cuddled up together. It was a little weird, Sam being so much shorter than Dakota by that point (at least we knew she wasn't going to get any taller), but they looked so cute and cozy together that I didn't have the heart to tease them. And as I discovered later, Sam actually liked Dakota's hair going green – he thought it was an awesome look.
"Sorry, Sam," I said, "But you know I'm going to have to hurl you with whoever goes home tonight." I paused. "Dakota, do you want to go with him or stay on the island?"
Dakota paused briefly to kiss Sam, and then said "I'll go too. It's been kind of fun, but I'd rather not hang around."
I shrugged. "Okay, all good. Anyway, I checked out the votes, and tonight, our hurl-ee is…" I paused, unable to hide a small smile and relishing it. "Scott!"
Zoey let out a small gasp as I spoke. Scott got to his feet, and soon, I saw why Zoey had gasped. She must have known what was going on, because the next minute, Scott held up a recognizable object. "Sorry," he smirked, "But I ain't going nowhere."
"Lucky for you," I said, knowing my expression had dimmed. "Scott, you're safe. And tonight…well, since we're losing two contestants, the catapult will be a bit crammed full already. So, tonight, no one goes home!" Everyone stared at me, and I shrugged. "What? We had to have a non-elimination round somewhere in this season. There's only thirteen of you!"
So Sam and Dakota happily walked down to the dock. In fact, they made out as they were hurled. I don't know, maybe it kept them calm.
I was a little sad to lose Dakota, but hey, I would get to see her again after the show ended.
Since I got rid of Anne Maria earlier, I moved the non-elimination here. Had Scott not had the statue, it would have been later and he would've been eliminated here, so he was still lucky to stay. As for Dakota – well, she wasn't in the mine quite as long as she was in canon. Also, I wanted to give her some mutations, but nothing too permanent. Her speech is the same as it always was, but some of her earlier traits, like the green hair growing faster than hair usually does, growing taller, and some spikes, but there aren't as many spikes as she had in canon, she's unusually tall but not excessively so (more about Jasmine's height), her eyes are still green and her skin is still fair. I didn't want to completely delete the mutation, but tone it down enough that it didn't needlessly punish her. This fic made me get quite fond of Dakota, which I didn't expect when I first started writing, although I knew from the start that her mutation would be lessened.
